Make New Friends But Keep The Old

One is silver and the other's gold. That was one of our girlscout songs. We sang it in a round - now that I look at the words, it doesn't make much sense. Your friends are silver and gold? Guess it didn't have to make sense when we were 1o. I've been thinking a lot about girlscouts lately because it's girlscout cookie season. I pretty much single handedly kept the girlscouts in business this year. Brian came upstairs a few weeks ago and asked me what the hell all the checks for Troop 19484, Troop 32043, Troop 24845, etc were for. I reminded him that the ordering sheets came out when I was 34 weeks pregnant and could not be held responsible for my actions. 25 boxes later.... and no, I'm not joking. I also only order 3 kinds - thin mints, samoas, and trefoils. I didn't even order one box of tagalongs for Brian. Poor guy. Good thing they freeze well!


This is Charlie's wubba nub which is a pacifier attached to a little puppy. He likes to hang onto the puppy - so cute.


I also have been thinking of the girlscouts because for some reason when I want to sing to Charlie, I can only think of girlscout songs and sorority songs. Not a single lullabye. Poor guy. But he really seems to like whatever comes out at 3 o'clock in the morning. His favorite starts out "Hoo rah hoo rah hoo rocks the house, we do!" Catchy, right? :) We think he is on the verge of smiling a true smile at us but we can never get it with the camera. Hopefully in the next few weeks.



Charlie turned 6 weeks old last Friday. I cannot believe 6 weeks have already come and gone and my maternity leave is 1/2 over! We are amazed at how Charlie is growing and changing. I swear, he goes down for a nap and wakes up a pound heavier. Although that pound could possibly be the huge blowout in his pants. He can track us with his eyes and looks for you when he hears your voice. I love when Brian comes home and says hello as he walks in the door. Charlie looks over in the direction of his voice and gets this funny face like "Thank god! Save me from this woman and her reality TV shows." He's also losing his hair pretty quickly. Like someone else we know who shall remain nameless but it rhymes with "cryin".

We've also been making lots of new friends lately! The group of 4 of us that were all pregnant at the same time have finally had our babies!! Colin Krieg was born on 3/15 and Gwen Endorf was born 3/21 and we've already had fun getting together as moms and dads! Our nights sure have changed. We used to meet up around 8 or 9 and now we get together at 5 and are usually home by 9 PM. We used to pack coolers of beer and jello shots and now we're packing diapers and breastmilk. Thank goodness we're going through all of this together!

This is Eloise and Charlie on their first date. My friends laugh because Charlie seems to always be asleep. We're extremely lucky that he continues to be a very mellow baby! He slept right through his first date although Ellie tried to put the moves on him - check out that arm! :)







Colin joined the fun in his super cute Michael Jackson onesie and Charlie thought he might impress Eloise if he showed his super strong legs so we put him just in a onesie.



Here is Colin moving in on Eloise.


Picture of the proud dads when we first went to meet Colin! So cute! Can't wait to get a picture of all 4 dads with the kids!


Our newest addition - sweet baby Gwen. They had just come home from the hospital. Charlie didn't seem that impressed with being inbetween the girls and it looks like Eloise was trying to comfort him!


The UNI basketball team made it to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time ever!! Charlie joined in the action by borrowing a tee shirt from his buddy Trey (thanks Allison) so he could cheer on the team. He's laying on my UNI afghan my mom made when I was in college. Lots of team spirit!


Daddy and Charlie watching the big game!


Charlie has also been trying out some of the new baby equipment that we have. He enjoyed both his activity mat and his bouncy seat. Since I'm on maternity leave, I've been lucky to meet a lot of friends out for lunch during the day. I never noticed before but they have these slings at restaurants where you can put the carseat in and not have to take your baby out. It's genius. I've been to 4 places in the past 2 weeks and have used the sling. This morning we went out for breakfast and they brought one and I realized after Brian put the carseat down that I've been putting the darn carseat in the sling the wrong way!!!!! All those waiters and waitresses must have been laughing at me but I didn't even realize it - I'm new at that stuff! Oops!

The very exciting activity mat. I went to go get the camcorder to take a video and when I walked back into the living room he was asleep. Maybe next time!

Enjoying his bouncy seat!

Also, stay tuned for a potential guest writer. "Someone" keeps asking me if he can write something for the blog and somehow I keep forgetting to give him the password. So I sent him an email that said "If you're interested in adding something to the blog, please send your submission to the editor by 5 PM on Fridays. Submissions will be reviewed within 7-10 business days and a decision will be emailed directly to you."

Happy St Patrick's Day

Things have been going well around here. The weather has been gorgeous for the past week. I think it got up to 68 on Sunday!!! We haven't quite mastered the stroller and leash combination but Sasha doesn't seem to mind if the stroller bumps her - she's just so glad to be outside and so are we! I heard a dirty rumor that it's supposed to snow next week though. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. We always get one last snow in March.

I call this McCrabby because he was hungry when I took it and I should have just waited.

Charlie is up to 8 lbs 13 oz as of this past Monday. His newest BFF Colin Krieg was born on Monday at a whopping 8 lbs 14 oz so I can't wait to get a picture of these two together!! They were due only 4 days apart so it will be fun to watch them grow together. Sara bought us matching baseball outfits for the boys to wear to Twins games. We went in with 4 other couples on Twins season tickets this year. We ordered last summer when there were no babies and by the time season opener comes around, there will be 4 babies!

My friend Allison gave me this adorable shirt and it was Charlie's first time in pants! They were so cute even though I didn't get a full picture of them.

I love this picture because it looks like Charlie is having a conversation with his sheep

The best example I can give of what sleep deprivation has done to me is tell you about what happens almost every night. Sometime in the middle of the night, Charlie must make a noise and I half wake up. For some reason, I wake up thinking that Charlie is in bed with us. NOTE: we've never let him sleep in bed with us or even lay in bed with us so I'm not sure why I wake up thinking that he's there. But I proceed to pick him up and get up to go to the nursery...only to realize that I'm holding Stella. I then fully wake up and realize that I'm holding Stella like a baby and Charlie is fast asleep in his bassinet. Poor Stella has started to sleep closer to Brian the last few nights to try to avoid being disrupted and hauled around like a baby! Last night I had just fallen asleep and Brian got up to get a glass of water, I must have heard something as he was coming back in the room because I opened my eyes to see a shadowy figure entering my room...and started screaming my head off. Brian started yelling at me (because he spilled his water on the floor), Sasha took off for the spare bedroom (nice watch dog) and Stella just burrowed in deeper to the covers. Charlie didn't even move. Good thing he's immune to his mom's night terrors!

More 1 month pictures.

When Charlie was a week old we had an amazing photographer come to our house and take some newborn pictures of him. Brian thought this was a waste of money because we could take them ourselves but after getting back the pictures, he agreed that it was money well spent! Now I just have to decide which ones to print and hang all over our house :)

To view the slideshow - go to: http://jmphotomn.com/viewing/?slideshowID=18490

Our Due Date!

I can't believe it..today is our due date. For the past 4 weeks, I've continued to get emails from websites with the subject line "Your pregnancy...at 39 weeks" and I would just laugh because I'm looking at my baby and reading the email! Charlie will be 4 weeks on Friday and Brian and I still look at him and then look at each other and can't quite believe he is here.

Our family picture before going out for my birthday dinner.


Mommy and Charlie

Charlie was weighed on Monday and weighed 8 lbs 3 oz - "weigh" to go champ! Sorry, I feel like being sleep deprived has sucked all the funny right out of me! He has graduated from the infant feeding program at Abbott. Ever since we left the hospital, we have been going back at least once a week to work with the program because being so early, Charlie had what they call a "bad work ethic" for feeding. Basically he was tired and lazy and couldn't wake himself up to eat enough. Last week we realized that he was just milking (again no pun intended) the whole thing and doubling up on his feedings because he would nurse AND take a bottle. When I told Brian he said "Now that is my son..he'll eat anything that is in front of him"! And now I know exactly what a milk cow feels like :) But I'm so happy that he's gaining and growing like a weed. We actually packed up his newborn clothes this week and put them in a bin. I have to admit that I shed a tear or two. The clothes would fit him in the chest and belly but he is very long and has really long arms so everything was looking like three quarter sleeved outfits or he couldn't stretch his legs all the way out! Even some of his 0-3 month outfit's sleeves are looking a little short.

Daddy and Charlie



Charlie on his due date in the first outfit I bought him! Wiener dogs of course!

Yesterday was my birthday and I had always been concerned that Charlie would be born on my birthday because I don't really like to share and didn't particularly want to share my "birthday month". Although now I realize that since our lives revolve around Charlie, my birthday wasn't as highly anticipated as years past. But it was a great birthday. I got my first "mom" birthday card from Charlie - again shed a tear. Brian and I were lucky enough to get out on our real first date without Charlie because my Mom is in town. It was weird being out without him but know he was in good hands with Grandma!

I told Brian we need to get a onesie or shirt that has a Vizla/Lab on it because we have all these wiener dog outfits but I think Sasha and Charlie are going to be BFF's since Stella doesn't even bother with him and Sasha is still in love. She thinks anytime we put him on the floor she would be right next to him. They have tummy time together.

Charlie and Grandma watching Oprah together :)

Lastly, (and the reality TV portion of the blog) our new favorite commercial is the E-Trade "milkaholic" commercial. It makes me laugh everytime it's on. I just heard on the news that Lindsay Lohan is suing E-Trade because she thinks that they are talking about her because one of the babies is named Lindsay. Are you kidding me you ego inflated burn out???? She said her first name is like Oprah or Madonna and is somehow coined. What a joke. Enjoy the commercial while it's still on!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEXZ2hfD3bU

2 weeks and 8,000,000 diapers later...

I may be exaggerating just a tad on how many diapers we've gone through..but not much. Charlie has this weird talent for filling his drawers just minutes after we've changed him. We can't believe that 2+ weeks have gone by since Charlie arrived. I feel like everything is just a blur and thank goodness for all the pictures so I can remember everything. Overall, things are going great. Charlie is an AMAZING baby. He sleeps 95% of the time and the nurse practitioner said that he is a sleepier baby than normal because he was born early and he still thinks he should be in the womb! Brian's mom said Brian was a lot like this as a baby - totally easy going and low key so we're hoping that Charlie keeps his sweet easy temperment.

Charlie at exactly 2 weeks



Charlie with his eyes open - this doesn't happen very often so I had to catch him!


As a follow up to my last post, our first post-baby date was a little bit of a fluke. We sent Charlie away in the hospital to get circumsized and Brian and I went down to McDonalds for breakfast. While we were there we realized it was Valentine's Day and laughed about our hot post baby date! The dogs are doing awesome with Charlie. Stella doesn't really care about him or pay him any attention and Sasha is really concerned about him. Everytime we go somewhere and come back she checks out the carseat to make sure he's ok. The first night we had him home he was crying when I was changing him and Sasha started whining. It was pretty funny.

Charlie praying. No we didn't even pose him. He was probably trying to get his fingers in his mouth but they ended up here and he was too tired to keep working on it! You can also see Sasha's nose peeking in on him.



Charlie's first bath. We were expecting him to scream and cry but he LOVES being in the warm water. Probably because he's supposed to still be in my tummy where it's like a nice warm bath!


I'm pretty sad that the Olympics are over. There was always something on TV for the past few weeks and I wasn't mad if I fell asleep in the middle of an event. I can tell you everything and anything about curling now. Brian and some guy friends are convinced that if they started a curling team, they would be ready to compete by 2014. These guys are pretty competitive (I know from watching them play softball for 8 years) so I think that they'd have a shot if they tried. I'll keep you all posted. I'll blame it on the hormones but I cried at just about every medal ceremoney where a US athlete won gold. And don't even get me started on that adorable figure skater from Canada whose Mom died a few days before her competition started. I sobbed during each of her performances and the medal ceremony. Now that the Olympics are over I need to find other shows to watch during the day while Charlie and I are hanging out (since he sleeps in my arms pretty much all day).

So far this is our schedule:
8-9 - wake up, change and feed Charlie - 3 minutes to eat Cap'n Crunch w/ Berries (my sugar cravings have not subsided even though I'm not pregnant anymore..)

9-10 - We switch back and forth between Ellen and Reg and Kelly depending on who is on

10-11 - Switch back and forth between The View and Price is Right. Last week Octomom and The Jersey Shore cast was on so I tried to not expose Charlie to that much trash in a row so early on in his development.

11-12 - usually feeding and changing Charlie

12-1 - Days of Our Lives - I haven't watched in 10 years yet I picked up on the story lines immediately. Weird.

1-4 - a mix of MTV, Bravo, and VH1 reality shows. My favorites are Taking the Stage (like Fame but real people), Kell on Earth (this woman is ugly and scary but it's addicting to watch), 16 and Pregnant (now I really know what these girls are in for!) and Shear Genius. Oh yeah - and I feed and change Charlie here too.

4-5 - Oprah (what I was most looking forward to during my maternity leave)

5 - Wait for Brian to get home and hang out with us!

Some of you may wonder when cooking dinner and cleaning house fit into this schedule. It doesn't...we haven't figured out how to fit that in yet. Thank goodness Brian doesn't seem to expect this when he gets home!

I love this picture because if you go back to my first blog post..it's this same pose except you insert Charlie into the picture instead of Stella!

Charlie's buddies Trey and Henry - still too little to play with them but it won't be long until they are wrestling on the floor. And we are very excited for the arrival of Henry's brother or sister in September! Congrats Mindy and Cory :)



We've also had lots of visitors and friends come and meet Charlie. He doesn't seem to mind being handed back and forth to people and has been such a good boy during each visit. We are very excited for my mom to come next week for a nice long visit!

I bought these month stickers to track Charlie's growth for the first year and these pictures were taken at 2 weeks. At Charlie's 2 week appointment he was already up to 7 lbs 5 oz. They like to see babies back up to birth weight at 2 weeks and Charlie was 6 lbs 11 oz at birth so he far exceeded what was expected! Good job buddy!

Introducing Charlie David Kippley!

Just in time for the Olympics and Valentine's Day....Charles David Kippley made an early entrance into the world on 2.12.2010. He weighed 6 lbs 11 oz and was 20.5 inches long (4 of which I'm convinced were from a massive conehead.)

The last time I posted I mentioned that I hoped the baby the would make an appearance very soon. I think Charlie was confused that what I meant as "very soon" was around February 28th...just a few weeks before my due date. But as I've quickly figured out in the last week, this baby stuff has nothing to do with my plans..it all revolves around Charlie!





I'll try to write the condensed version of his birth story. On Wednesday I thought I had a doctor's appt but apparently it was scheduled for Friday and the super rude receptionist sent me away crying (hormones) saying they didn't have any openings and I would have to wait until Friday. I called the nurse's office on the way to work because I was having really bad gas cramps and wanted to know if I could take mylanta. Note to self and all pregnant moms: you CAN take mylanta..no need to call. If you call, you could end up with a baby instead of a mylanta recommendation. Anywho - they wanted me to come to the hospital for monitoring because I don't know the difference between gas and contractions. When I was hooked up, they realized that it wasn't contractions (duh) but my blood pressure had skyrocketed to around 175/105. They monitored me for a few hours but all my other tests came back fine and we thought I'd be released in time for our reservations at Wildfire for our anniversary. My doctor came in around 6 and told me that instead of bed rest or medication, my blood pressure had put me in the "severe preeclampsia" category and they would start inducing me that night. Brian and I just kept looking at eachother and then I burst out into tears (second for the day) and kept saying how I wasn't ready.



We must have been a sight walking to our labor and delivery room. I was carrying my shoes and bawling and Brian was in his suit and trying to calm me down. They must have been talking about us on the floor because all the nurses that came in wished us a Happy Anniversary and joked that their food wasn't going to be as good as Wildfire's. One nurse even joked, "That's what you get for complaining about some gas." So we settled in thinking he would be born Thursday.



Again..Charlie was on his own schedule. Because everything was stable except my blood pressure, they let us take the slow and steady route of inducing me and letting my body do as much of the work as possible. Mentally, this helped us really prepare as I was in the hospital 48+ hours before he was even born. All day Thurs and Fri they gave me medication to get things going. The doctor broke my water at 9 AM on Friday and the contractions came on hard and fast. I held a nurse hostage until they brought the doctor in for my epidural. He was rambling off all the risks and I'm pretty sure he could have told me that there was a chance I could lose a few limbs and my eyesight and I would have signed on the dotted line! Thankfully the epdiural worked like a charm and we just hung out and waited the rest of the afternoon. I was finally ready to push a little after 8 PM and at 9:09 PM (just as the US Olympic team came out on the floor) Charlie was born!



How do I know that this was the moment the Olympic team walked on the floor? Well my nurses and Brian were watching the Olympics inbetween all my pushing. We LOVED all of our labor and delivery nurses at Abbott. The 2 that helped us deliver were super funny and even had that sarcastic humor we love. The opening ceremonies were going on and I swear, after each contraction, the nurse and Brian dropped my legs like a hot potato and turned around to keep watching. So as I'm recovering, all I hear is "What sport do you think Ethiopia particpates in? Oh look at those outfits. Who wears shorts/crazy pants/fur like coats." At some point I started shooting Brian dirty looks. Let's keep our eyes on the prize people! I was even telling them "Umm I think this is a contraction. Should I be pushing?" And all 3 of them would turn around and refocus. It's funny in hindsight but not as much during the actual delivery! :)

Snuggling with Grandma Paula and Grandpa Dave


The big things we were worried about before Charlie was born was his weight and breathing - at 36 weeks, babies aren't considered full term and could have complications. Apparently measuring 2 weeks ahead this whole time did mean something because Charlie was a great size at 6 lbs 11 oz and he had no complications at all. He's a champ! I couldn't wait to use my "72 hour labor" to my advantage over the months and years to come. Scenario: Brian asks me to do something and I say, "remember when I was in labor for 72 hours with your son?" Well a nurse was happy to point out (in Brian's presence) that they only count labor as starting when you're 3 cm dilated and I wans't to that point until 4 PM on Friday. So technically I was only in labor for 5 hours. I almost punched her in the face but the IV made it hard for me to get out of bed!!



The name is a combination of 2 family names. We honestly didn't have our name until after he was born. (We thought we had more time to decide!) Charles is Brian's grandpa's name who passed away shortly after we started dating and David is my dad's name. Brian said he looked like a Charlie because he has an old man look about him!

With Grandma Pat


We are settling in and adjusting to being sleep deprived! It has been so much fun having Brian home too and we can't believe how fast the days go. I don't know how single moms do it..Brian has picked up right where he left off in being probably the most helpful human being ever and has just dived right into fatherhood. Our pediatrician even asked if he'd been around babies before because he seemed like such a natural :) I have so much more to post about: how Sasha and Stella are getting along with their brother, why the nurse came in to wake up Brian at the hospital, our first date post baby, etc but Charlie is ready to eat so I have to get going! I will try to update with pictures as much as possible. And sorry for this marathon post!!

Happy Anniversary to us!

Tomorrow is our 3rd wedding anniversary. I can't believe it's been 3 years since we were in Mexico exchanging our vows on the best day of my life. I went to Target today to get Brian a card and I think they are really missing out on a niche market called "crazy pregnant women who need cards." I was looking for a card that said something like "Honey, I'm sorry that I've been a hormonal crazy bi-atch for the past few weeks (or months). I'm sorry for going crazy and having a melt down in the car on Saturday night when the chinese restaurant was closed because the electricity was off on that block. I'm sorry that I told you I wanted ice cream but didn't give you any direction forcing you into Cub to buy the largest assortment of ice cream treats (including 10 small Ben&Jerry's pints) just because you were scared to come back with the wrong flavor. I'm sorry that I started wearing granny panties at 8 weeks just because they were comfortable. I'm sorry that I make you rub my cankles every night to get the sock lines out. And I'm sorry in advance for what the next 4 weeks will bring to your life if your son doesn't make an appearance very soon." BUT Target didn't have a card even close to all that so I just picked up the generic Happy Anniversary, blah blah, Love you blah blah card.




Our big plans for tomorrow include breakfast at Hells Kitchen (no this is not a nickname for our kitchen when I cook). It's a fantastic breakfast place downtown Minneapolis. Then I have an OB appt where I'm hoping she'll confirm what I know - that this child is already about 8 lbs and she will induce me next week. Then tomorrow night we're heading out for dinner if I can stay awake past 6:30! Fun stuff!




But seriously, Brian has been such a trooper these past 9 months. He always has been great about doing stuff around the house and splitting all the household chores with me without having to be asked but he's really stepped it up a notch since I've been pregnant. He probably is bordering on sainthood these days for all he puts up with but I appreciate it more than he knows and can't wait to venture into parenthood with him. I'm pretty sure he stopped reading the blog a few months ago but if you do read this today Brian - I Love You!!

Oh what I would give to be on a beach drinking a mojito or miami vice right now.....

A shower extravaganza!

As of last night, my showers are all done. I can remember registering and thinking that everything seemed so far away still. Now I had my last 2 showers and all I have to do is finish up on a few things and....wait. I had my 35 week appt yesterday and I'm still measuring exactly 2 weeks ahead. My doctor said it doesn't mean anything except that the baby "could be big." God help me. I think it means she should induce me 2 weeks ahead but apparently we are not on the same page. She doesn't realize how determined I can be and she has to see me every week now...

My shower on Sunday was hosted by Brian's aunt's Anne and Deb and his cousin Karen. Anne had asked me what I've been craving (other than sugar) and I said Mexican food. I didn't realize that was a reason behind her question but they had fajitas, taquitos, guac and chips, etc! So delicious!! We played the dirty diaper game where they put a crushed up and melted candy bar in a diaper and you had to guess what candy it was. It was completely disgusting and hilarious! We also played this game where they had to guess and cut a streamer length on how big my belly was. Some people (Colleen) were very nice and had very small streamers. Some people (Julie) are just cruel and I could have wrapped that streamer around me twice! Some people may be off the Christmas card list :) Brian's grandma won the game - which is very fitting since she had 8 kids of her own to know how to measure this belly by looks!


The amazing cupcakes - some had a filling and they were all differnet flavors. So good.



Me with my hostesses.



With the grandmas (my mom and Brian's mom)



My shower last night was held by my friends Teresa and Leah and was a "co-worker" shower. They had it at a restaurant and even Brian put in an appearance. They had little cups of conversation hearts (my favorite candy) that had baby sayings on it. I didn't do a very good job at taking pictures at my work shower so hopefully I can add a few when poeple share.

For some reason all the homemade gifts really send me into tears at the showers. I was pretty much a mess at the family shower but I blame the crazy hormones. Brian's aunt Deb made the gorgeous quilt on the right and she always sews in the sweetest messages too. She also made a bib and burp cloth and another blanket. My mom made the afghan in the middle and it is so soft. And my co-worker Jan made the elephant on the right. It is so huggable and I know will become a lifelong favorite for the baby.

Brian's grandma also gave us the christening bib that all of her kids wore at their baptism. That sent me into tears too. I want to find a shadow box and hang it on the wall of the nursery. It's really delicate!



I'm pretty sure this baby is set!!! Brian doesn't even know where we're going to put all of the awesome stuff that we have now!